Man dies after being shot - Pendle Hill

By
Megan Levy

Man dies after being shot - Pendle Hill

A gunman is on the run after shooting dead a man in the back as he walked to his car in Pendle Hill, the second fatal shooting in Sydney in just three nights.

Police say they do not believe Wednesday night’s shooting outside an apartment block is linked to the death of the cousin of Brothers for Life founder Bassam Hamzy, who was fatally gunned down in a Revesby Heights garage just after 12.30am on Tuesday.

In the latest shooting, police and paramedics were called to an apartment block in Dunmore Street, Pendle Hill just before midnight on Wednesday after reports that a man had been shot and seriously injured.

Police arrived to find a 27-year-old man lying unconscious in the driveway. He had been shot at least four times in the back in what police have described as a ‘‘targeted attack’’.

Police said the shooting victim had been walking to a vehicle parked in the driveway of the apartment block when he was shot by a gunman, who was wearing a black hooded jumper. The victim's girlfriend is believed to have been with him at the time and witnessed the shooting.

The gunman was last seen walking away from the apartment block towards Goodall Street.

Residents who called triple-0 claimed that more than eight shots had been fired in the attack.

Paramedics performed CPR on the shooting victim before taking him to Westmead Hospital, where he later died.

Police had been bracing for the possibility of tit-for-tat shootings after 25-year-old Mahmoud Hamzy, the cousin of Brothers for Life founder Bassam Hamzy, was shot dead in Sydney’s south-west on Tuesday night.

A NSW Police spokeswoman said there was no immediate evidence to suggest that the two shootings were linked, but investigations were continuing.

Hamzy’s friend, Omar Ajaj, 24, is in hospital after he was also shot in the leg and stomach in the same incident.

Homicide detectives were investigating the ’’distinct possibility’’ that Tuesday's shooting was the result of an internal gang conflict but were also looking at whether it was motivated by a feud with rivals.

A police source said members of Brothers for Life, who comprise mostly Middle Eastern men living in south-west Sydney, were known to use guns to settle any dispute, from being upset about a post on social networking site Facebook to unpaid drug debts.

’’Brothers for Life have a known history of shooting each other,’’ the source said.

Detectives from Holroyd Local Area Command, with the assistance of the State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad, are investigating the latest death.

They have urged anyone who witnessed the shooting, or has information about the identity and location of the gunman, to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.